Maple Leafs tough guy steps up for young mates

OTTAWA - As the Maple Leafs get younger, Colton Orr's fight card will get longer.

That's usually the way it works for NHL enforcers, at least those who find themselves in the spot that Orr does with the rebuilding Leafs. With Toronto now the youngest team in the NHL, without the injured Mike Komisarek and with Garnet Exelby not guaranteed to be in the lineup every night, Orr will be getting overtime minutes on his policeman's beat. Saturday, for example, there's a much-anticipated rematch with Ottawa Senators nemesis Matt Carkner.

Orr is at 18 bouts according to hockeyfights.com, tying his mark of last season with a quarter of the schedule remaining, residing in the league's top 10 in that unique category. Yes, it's not a part of the game all of you embrace, but remember that at this time last season, no Leaf was in that top group of grapplers, while rookie Luke Schenn was getting sore knuckles trying to fight everyone else's battles.

This season's mantra of "truculence and testosterone" did not extend to players such as Phil Kessel, Tyler Bozak and Viktor Stalberg. But when Orr thought they were getting abused on Thursday in Boston, he dropped a weight class and scrapped with Steve Begin, having already battled Boston rogue Milan Lucic early in the game.

"I like to try and give all the young guys more room to play and be comfortable knowing I'll be there for them," Orr said Friday after the Leafs worked out here. "Everyone is there for each other. If there's anything (threatening), guys will step up."

What has been a write-off season for many older Leafs, the ones still here anyway, has been a little kinder to Orr, the 6-foot-3, 222-pound Winnipeg-born winger. The combined minus-28 that dogged him in the past two years as the New York Rangers' lion tamer is a much tidier minus-3 here.

"It has been a year to develop for me," Orr said. "I've been put in some defensive roles and our line (usually with centre Wayne Primeau) has played well in certain situations. But we need to show more in the win column as a whole team.

"We've made a lot of changes, we're getting younger and we have to try and push in the right direction."

Coach Ron Wilson seemed to be pushing Orr to prepare for Carkner and the Sens with a little playfight at the bench near the end of practice, but Orr knows the drill. He and Carkner have gone at it with zest three times in the Battle of Ontario this season, with Orr holding a 2-1 edge. Most recently, Orr's haymaker right staggered Carkner on Feb. 6 at the ACC in a 5-0 Leafs win.

Carkner, who has 19 fights (Zenon Konopka of Tampa Bay leads with 24, according to hockeyfights.com), isn't looking to over-hype this encounter, but says Bytowners aren't letting "Big Country" forget what Orr did to him last month whenever he's in public.

"We should be charging for tickets," Carkner said jokingly to QMI Agency. "Obviously, a lot of the fans follow the Ottawa-Toronto rivalry. It's good for the fans to see two guys are battling."

Carkner went down so hard last time that the on-ice officials sent him to the dressing room right away, despite his attempt to save face and make his way to the penalty box with Orr.

"I've never really been hit by many guys like that before," Carkner admitted. "Usually, with my fights, I can handle anyone. He's just one of those guys that caught me. I caught him as well and he doesn't get caught too many times either. Each fight we've had, it's like we're not leaving anything back."

If only the Leafs could create this kind of anticipation for a game against Ottawa that had playoff, not pugilistic, implications.